Dana White Expects UFC 306 at Las Vegas Sphere to Be a 'Game Changer' for All Sports

UFC President Dana White says that hosting Sunday's UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas will change the sports landscape for more than just mixed martial arts.

The $20 million event will mark the first live sports event to take place in front of the Sphere's 160,000-square-foot wraparound screen.

"I truly believe that this event is going to be such a game changer," White said Thursday, per Mark Anderson of the Associated Press. "It's the first time that entertainment and sports truly come together. I think the Sphere and what we're doing (Saturday) is going to make some of these venues change their vision and how they build them.

"You go to a Lakers game and they've got some guy that comes out juggling at halftime, the mascot's dunking a ball off the trampoline. I think they're going to start to get more creative in how you can truly create better experiences for people at live sporting events."

White described the event, which will be headlined by the men's bantamweight fight between Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili, as a cross between a live and televised event.

"We usually produce two different shows," White said. "There's a live in-house show you experience and there's a television experience. We're going to try to bring that together live and on television."

Outside of O'Malley and Dvalishvili's fight, the night will feature Mexican and Mexican-American fighters as part of White has described as a "love letter" to Mexico ahead of the country's Monday anniversary of its independence from Spain.

UFC chief content officer Craig Borsari said recently that the screen inside the venue will feature "six 90-second films that will tell the story of the Mexican people, their culture, their heritage and their fighting spirit" during the fights, per Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

According to Borsari, the screen will be in constant use throughout the event.

"After these 90-second films run, it (the screen) will then transition into what we are calling these digital worlds," Borsari said, per Akers. "The world will sit there during the fights, and the fights will be integrated into those digital environments."

In order to capture the wraparound screen on pay-per-view, the UFC hired specialty cameras with wide lenses, per Forbes' Matt Craig.

Attending Sunday's event might not be the only way fans can watch O'Malley and Dvalishvili's bout in the Sphere. Craig told Sportico's Jacob Feldman earlier this week that he would like to show recordings of the event at the venue following the live event.